After our summer in Koh Tao, Thailand, and my delight in the Thai custom of home altars, I took home loads of driftwood from the gorgeous wooden water taxi boats and fishing boats, and I built this altar. It evolved over time. The green prayer flag was given to me from a Chinese friend who stole it in Tibet. The yellow flag I purchased from a really stoned Thai artist whose work I bought a lot of that summer – I really wanted his prayer flag and he finally let me have it. The big Muslim beads are a gift from a devout Muslim woman friend who bought those from an old woman in Mecca. The metal worship stuff is mostly from Madurai, India. The wooden life symbol is Egyptian, of course. The little silver cup I use for my candles every day I found in a forest in Thailand after we’d visited a Buddhist monastery. The window frame is from the garbage in China. The olive wood chalice is from Jordan.The image in the frame is from the Aya Sofia in Istanbul. The wooden cross was my grandmother’s, and it was made for her by my grandfather. The little girl who hugs the altar I found after a big storm on the beach in Vietnam. The little resin Ganesh is from that same Muslim friend who found it in the ocean in Qatar and gave it to me. We found that resin buddah in the jetty on Thailand. The Buddhist prayer beads are a gift from this really holy monk we met at a remote temple in Nepal. He took them off his neck and put them on mine. Most of the beaded crosses are from the Massai here in Tanzania. And the tiny little white glass cross is handmade by disable artists from recycled glass here in Dar as well.

Material: Fabric, Glass, Metal, Wood

Origin: China